image of person or book cover 8885293039615251416.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon The Life of Houses single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 The Life of Houses
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Life of Houses explores, with a poet's eye for detail, the hidden tensions in an old established Australian family that has lived for generations in a large house in a coastal town in south-eastern Australia. These tensions come to the surface when the granddaughter Kit is sent by her mother to spend a holiday with her grandparents, and the unmarried aunt who looks after them, in their old and decaying house by the sea. Kit barely knows them, because her mother is estranged from the family and never talks to or visits them. Recently divorced from Kit's father, she sends her daughter to her parents now so she can pursue an affair with her new lover. Kit's presence brings the old quarrels to life as family memories take hold of the present, brought to a flashpoint by the anger and resentment of Kit and her mother, and the dementia and sudden illness of her grandparents. The Life of Houses is written in an extraordinarily expressive and dynamic prose that makes use of the close focus and the oblique perspectives that Gorton has mastered so successfully in her poetry. It is a style reminiscent of Henry James and Patrick White, a high style, perfectly suited to the social decorum and inhibition of her socially elevated but unhappy subjects.' (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

17461599
17457182
17488129
17457133

Notes

  • Launched by David Malouf on Sunday 17 May at Gleebooks, Glebe NSW.
  • Dedication: For my children Kelso, Toby and Penelope

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Artarmon, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Giramondo Publishing , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 8885293039615251416.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 216p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1st April 2015
      ISBN: 9781922146809

Works about this Work

"The House Will Come to You" : Domestic Architecture in Contemporary Australian Literature and Film Ella Jeffery , Emma Doolan , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 34 no. 2 2020; (p. 277-295)
'The house has long been an archetypal site of Gothic terror and entrapment. The Gothic dwelling is one of the most steadfast conventions of the mode, shifting as the Gothic has shifted through history to encompass a range of sites, from castles to cabins, speaking to ongoing anxieties about the security and stability of the home, nation, family, or self. The Gothic’s “relentlessly ‘architectural’ obsessions” (Castle 88) have been well documented, and Gothic buildings are frequently read as psychological as much as physical spaces. The Gothic edifice functions as a “sensation-machine” (Castle 88) capable of generating the sublime feeling of being overwhelmed by a greater power. The Gothic house, operating on a smaller scale, has likewise been associated with overarching power structures such as the nation, family, or—in the Female Gothic—patriarchy.' (Publication abstract)
Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2016 : Judges Split Three of the $80,000 Prizes Jason Steger , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 8 November 2016;
'Two years ago there was quite a kerfuffle when Tony Abbott intervened at the last moment to ensure the Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction was shared between the novelist the judges had selected, Steven Carroll, and the PM's captain's pick, Richard Flanagan. ...'
Inhabiting Spirits Kerryn Goldsworthy , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2016;

— Review of The Life of Houses Lisa Gorton , 2015 single work novel
Best Reads – End of Story Deborah Bogle , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2015; (p. 24)
The Collapse of Space : On Lisa Gorton’s The Life of Houses John Kinsella , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 October no. 52.0 2015;
'I think making comparisons between Lisa Gorton’s The Life of Houses and other writers is somewhat distracting of the novel’s achievement. If there was another novelist who came to mind during my reading of this novel it was actually Virginia Woolf, though this was in a distant modernist way, and echoed my reading of To the Lighthouse of almost thirty years ago. (As I write, my partner Tracy Ryan, calls out from her study and reads a piece to me saying Lisa Gorton herself draws this link to Woolf – which I didn’t know when I read the book and thought it.) No, what came to mind was actually the ‘tension’ between ‘technical drawing’, representational painting and a late expressionism. My markers were visual, which might be assumed, with Anna running a gallery and the subtext of the novel being representations of the actual world as aesthetic, and how much they don’t translate. Scott’s drawing of Kit is wrong and he knows it, and so does Kit, but in telling a lie about her it also tells her a lie she needs to hear. In that liminal dubious way he interacts with her, giving a snowball effect (in a hot climate) to rumours of impropriety with the teenager Hugh he’d also sketched in school uniform, board shorts, and various states of ‘naturalism’; though the subjects were dressed, in the sketches the capturing of skin, hair and flesh is more exposing than the naked body – juxtapose to the ‘life drawing’ classes and the indifference of the model, and Kit’s fascination with the colour of her breasts). Patrick’s being something of a forger who taints the family name in odd and abstracted ways is also a disclaimer that affects the way the reader interprets and absorbs the visual in the book.' (Author's introduction)
Where the Walls Can Speak in Cast-off Voices Felicity Plunkett , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 May 2015; (p. 19-20)

— Review of The Life of Houses Lisa Gorton , 2015 single work novel
When Still Lives Need More Than Observation Helen Elliott , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 May 2015; (p. 29) The Saturday Age , 16-17 May 2015; (p. 25)

— Review of The Life of Houses Lisa Gorton , 2015 single work novel
An Acute Study of Family Dysfunction Geoff Page , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 16 May 2015; (p. 14)

— Review of The Life of Houses Lisa Gorton , 2015 single work novel
Review : The Life of Houses SR , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 18 April 2015;

— Review of The Life of Houses Lisa Gorton , 2015 single work novel
Well Read Katharine England , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 30 May 2015; (p. 32)

— Review of The Life of Houses Lisa Gorton , 2015 single work novel ; Hopscotch Jane Messer , 2015 single work novel
Lisa Gorton Jane Sullivan , 2015 single work interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18 April 2015; (p. 24-25) The Canberra Times , 18 April 2015; (p. 13) The Age , 18 April 2015; (p. 24)
'The award-winning poet’s first novel emerged from a fascination not with the past itself, but rather the people who are obsessed by it, writes Jane Sulllivan.'
The Collapse of Space : On Lisa Gorton’s The Life of Houses John Kinsella , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 October no. 52.0 2015;
'I think making comparisons between Lisa Gorton’s The Life of Houses and other writers is somewhat distracting of the novel’s achievement. If there was another novelist who came to mind during my reading of this novel it was actually Virginia Woolf, though this was in a distant modernist way, and echoed my reading of To the Lighthouse of almost thirty years ago. (As I write, my partner Tracy Ryan, calls out from her study and reads a piece to me saying Lisa Gorton herself draws this link to Woolf – which I didn’t know when I read the book and thought it.) No, what came to mind was actually the ‘tension’ between ‘technical drawing’, representational painting and a late expressionism. My markers were visual, which might be assumed, with Anna running a gallery and the subtext of the novel being representations of the actual world as aesthetic, and how much they don’t translate. Scott’s drawing of Kit is wrong and he knows it, and so does Kit, but in telling a lie about her it also tells her a lie she needs to hear. In that liminal dubious way he interacts with her, giving a snowball effect (in a hot climate) to rumours of impropriety with the teenager Hugh he’d also sketched in school uniform, board shorts, and various states of ‘naturalism’; though the subjects were dressed, in the sketches the capturing of skin, hair and flesh is more exposing than the naked body – juxtapose to the ‘life drawing’ classes and the indifference of the model, and Kit’s fascination with the colour of her breasts). Patrick’s being something of a forger who taints the family name in odd and abstracted ways is also a disclaimer that affects the way the reader interprets and absorbs the visual in the book.' (Author's introduction)
Best Reads – End of Story Deborah Bogle , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2015; (p. 24)
Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2016 : Judges Split Three of the $80,000 Prizes Jason Steger , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 8 November 2016;
'Two years ago there was quite a kerfuffle when Tony Abbott intervened at the last moment to ensure the Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction was shared between the novelist the judges had selected, Steven Carroll, and the PM's captain's pick, Richard Flanagan. ...'
"The House Will Come to You" : Domestic Architecture in Contemporary Australian Literature and Film Ella Jeffery , Emma Doolan , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 34 no. 2 2020; (p. 277-295)
'The house has long been an archetypal site of Gothic terror and entrapment. The Gothic dwelling is one of the most steadfast conventions of the mode, shifting as the Gothic has shifted through history to encompass a range of sites, from castles to cabins, speaking to ongoing anxieties about the security and stability of the home, nation, family, or self. The Gothic’s “relentlessly ‘architectural’ obsessions” (Castle 88) have been well documented, and Gothic buildings are frequently read as psychological as much as physical spaces. The Gothic edifice functions as a “sensation-machine” (Castle 88) capable of generating the sublime feeling of being overwhelmed by a greater power. The Gothic house, operating on a smaller scale, has likewise been associated with overarching power structures such as the nation, family, or—in the Female Gothic—patriarchy.' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 9 Nov 2016 07:21:42
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